Ranma Beats 12 - Volume II
by RedDesertPhoenix
Summary: The continuation of Ranma Beats 12.
1. Prologue

**Ranma Beats ½, **

Disclaimer:

I don't own any of the characters, settings or so on.

**Volume Two**

**Prologue:**

Shiina trudged back to the surface, depressed by her defeat at the hands of Tenshis' doppelganger. It was true that she had been the only member to delay the doppelgangers through actual combat rather than suicide, and it was true that she had only fallen when a second doppelganger had appeared behind her, but for Shiina those points were no consolation. For someone who had spent her life developing her skills and her death perfecting them, such a defeat should not have occurred.

If Tenshi had been an angel in fact as well as name, her defeat could have been excused to some degree. The girl was inhumanly strong, but was also clearly untrained. Even with Tenshi's magical techniques and strength, Shiina should still have had little problem defeating the so-called Angel. Still, her magic was a formidable advantage. If this had been Shiina's first defeat, it would have bothered her less.

But it wasn't.

Her first defeat had been at the hands of Yuri Nakamura. Shiina had been lured to the surface, and into a battle with the original Tenshi. Shiina had become so involved in the fight that she had neglected her surroundings – and had been flattened by Hideki, who Nakamura had somehow convinced to jump from the top of the school in a suicidal tackle.

While Shiina found Nakamura's fighting skills laughable, her ability to orchestrate plans and inspire those around her into sacrifice highly impressed the ninja. In Nakamura, Shiina had at long last found a leader worth following.

Lately though, Shiina had been wondering if she had made the right decision. It was true that under Nakamura's leadership, the members of the SSS had developed into a highly successful fighting force, but the objectives of their attacks often seemed nonsensical – such as the meal tickets collected in 'Operation Tornado'. Shiina could only assume the operations were a smoke screen, and their leader was training them for some as-yet unannounced master plan.

Their training was something else Shiina worried about. They had no training schedule, and the only training they did was at their own initiative. Nakamura didn't even provide them with an instructor. Many of the SSS members' skills had gaping holes in their combat ability, yet their leader made no effort to plug those gaps.

Given the strategic and tactical brilliance her leader had impressed her with in the past, Shiina assumed Nakamura's master plan must need the group to be not as combat effective as Shiina would have preferred.

At least, this is what Shiina wanted to believe. The alternative – that Nakamura had no master-plan, was as childish and immature as she often acted, and blundered through crisis after crisis through bluff and the luck of the devil, Shiina tried not to think about. On some nights though, the possibility was harder not to think about than others

Given that it was dark, and Shiina was tired, hurting, and full of doubts about both hers and her leader's abilities, it shouldn't surprise the reader to learn that that Shiina failed to notice the student in the torn uniform staring into the river below her. This isn't what happened however. Despite all these drawbacks, there was still _something_ that twinged at her awareness. Something that caused her to abandon her introspection, disappear into the shadows, and creep forward to observe the red-haired pigtailed girl.

AUTHORS NOTES

I know this isn't much, considering how long it's been since the last update. This can be considered notice that I'm about to start continuing the series though. It took me a long time to find enough workable ideas to start the sequel, but I think I'm finally at that point now. I won't give any indicators about the length, or direction, or speed of updates, because the plans I make for my stories never survive contact with the narrative.

I did originally try writing this a few different ways, using Yurippe instead. I've found that I can't write as her at all though. While I've studied the source material, I just can't get into her head space at all.

Lastly, I need to thank Kariston Draconis for acting as my beta reader for this fic, starting with this prologue.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer:

I don't own any of the characters, settings or so on.

**Chapter 1:**

Shiina stood in the principal's office as Yuri Nakamura debriefed her band. Outwardly, she paid attention. Inwardly however, she was having trouble dismissing what she had seen by the river.

The girl she had seen had been pathetic. Obviously new to the afterlife, and distraught at whatever had bought her to this place. Shiina's training hardened her against empathy, yet there was something in the girl's countenance that echoed within Shiina, making it hard for her to forget the girl. But this wasn't the time for such things...

Nakamura had told them Tenshi was still unconscious, had told them that she had been rendered so by re-absorbing all the doppelgangers that had been made of her. Had even reassured them that given the nature of the afterlife, her unconsciousness had to be temporary, and Tenshi would wake with time. Shiina sighed. Nakamura hadn't called them all together just say everything was fine. Their leader might like dancing around issues, but Shiina preferred confronting them directly.

"And who will she be when she wakes up?"

Shiina's comment caused an explosion of noise from the more impressionable members. As scatter-brained as she believed the other SSS members to be, even they seemed to realise that if Shiina was taking this seriously enough to comment on, it had to be a major problem.

"Exactly." Nakamura said, taking back the groups attention. "Just going by the odds, the chances of Tenshi waking up as her old self are about one percent."

Shiina watched, silent once more, as Nakamura outlined her plan to contain the angel if her doppelgangers' attempt to possess her succeeded. Two of her underlings had been sent to seal Tenshi's abilities, while another two were guarding the entrance to the hospital quarters.

"So you're going to delete all the data, change the login password, and seal all her abilities? That's just a temporary solution. You know that, right?" The comment had come from Naoi, laying insolently on one of the couches. Still, Shiina conceded, despite his casual attitude, he hadn't actually been insulting this time.

Nakamura was already replying, and Shiina bought her attention back to their leader, rather than focusing on her dislike of the boy with the god complex.

"I know. Our defences will be broken through eventually, and she'll re-input the data."

They continued to talk, but most of it was beyond Shiina's understanding. The people of this time had access to artefacts she had originally assumed were magical in nature. Like their guns, and the reality-distorting 'computer' that Tenshi had access to. They had assured her that none of these things were magical – that they ran on something called 'technology' – which Shiina took to mean was a different type of magic.

The high magical abilities of her fellow members might have bothered her more if it had made them more powerful than her in combat, but with the exception of Tenshi, she was confident she could come out on top in a match with anyone she had met.

With the exception of Tenshi…

The idea of Tenshi controlled once more by the evil doppelgangers made Shiina shudder slightly. The girl was insanely fast, and had ridiculously overpowered techniques. It was a small miracle they had stopped Tenshi last time, and they had only won by booby trapping her abilities. If Tenshi hid the device that provided her skills – the 'computer', they would have no way to seal her abilities. No way to stop her creating another army of clones. The girl truly would be unstoppable.

The meeting continued while Shiina stood silently, internally brooding on what she could do to prevent it. And wondering why she felt Nakamura was leaving something out… before it finally came to her.

Otonashi.

Of course, it wasn't really necessary for Nakamura to mention him. They all knew where he would be. He was the one member who had any influence with Tenshi. The only one who seemed to care for the… girl? Shiina was still unsure if Tenshi was Gods minion as Nakamura claimed, or just a girl with more magical ability than the rest of her group. Either way, for some reason beyond her abilities to understand, Otonashi cared for Tenshi.

Shiina had at first felt rather disturbed that the boy felt sympathy for the group's strongest enemy. She had quietly recommended to Nakamura that they kill the boy outright and casting him out of the SSS, but much to Shiina's frustration, this wasn't the way their leader did things. When Tenshi started acting as a sometimes-ally to the SSS, Shiina found herself deeply angry, and for the first time, unsure of herself. It took her a great deal of internal contemplation before she realised it was because she was disappointed. Tenshi might be their enemy, but aside from their leader's singled-minded determination to fight God, she was the only person Shiina had found worthy of her respect. For someone of that calibre to stop fighting… lose her purpose, as it were, just because some cute boy was making eyes at her, and occasionally treated her decently… To Shiina's mind, allowing your feelings to have that much influence over your purpose was a huge weakness. When facing down an enemy, an open mind was like a castle with its gates unbarred and the drawbridge down. Shiina had seen the results of such weakness in the past, and the thought of Tenshi being so weak made her faintly ill.

Well, regardless of her dislike of the connection between the two, it was their best chance of preventing the angel waking up as a demon. And if his presence didn't calm her down, if Tenshi did wake as a demon - well, Otonashi would be torn to pieces.

Shiina smiled grimly to herself.

A win-win situation.

**UP TO HERE**

Nakamura waited until the last member had gone before sighing, and heading for her dormitory. When Shiina pulled away from one of the shadows in the hallway to walk silently by her side she gave the smallest of starts, but gave no other indicator Shiina had surprised her.

"Yes, Shiina?"

"My lady, the threat Tenshi poses…"

Nakamura frowned and interrupted.

"Don't call me 'My Lady'. Yuri's fine."

Shiina walked silently for a while, before replying.

"My Lady, it is your title. Calling you anything else would be disrespectful."

Her leader frowned pointedly at the ninja, and Shiina sighed.

"Yuri."

Nakamura gave the ninja a cheerful pat on the back. "See? That wasn't so hard. And I don't care about respect. I started this group to get back at god, not become a princess."

The topic was an old one between them, and there were more urgent matters that needed addressing. "Nakamura, the Tenshi matter…"

Yuri frowned briefly at the use of her surname, then focused upon what Shiina had… not said.

"I want you to keep an eye on her. Be discrete. Let me know if anything seems… off, about her after she wakes up."

Shiina bowed her head. "If the doppelgangers are in control when she wakes, what are my orders?"

Nakamura hesitated. It was obvious what Shiina thought her orders should be. Their only hope of containing her would be immediately after she woke, and Shiina was the only one of their group capable of doing it. But at the same time...

The two walked together silently, her leader lost in thought.

"If she attacks one of our members, you may attack her", Nakamura eventually replied. "Otherwise just observe. Stay hidden, find out who she is, what she wants, and tell me about it."

Shiina bowed her head in agreement, and they once more walked in silence. When Shiina didn't slip silently away as she usually did, Nakamura looked up at her questioningly.

'There's another matter?'

Shiina nodded.

"A new girl. By the river."

Her leader snorted. "Priorities, Shiina. If Tenshi wakes up bad, she can wipe us out utterly. Recruiting new members comes after that."

Shiina accepted her rebuke silently, bowed her head in apology, and slipped away into the next shadow.

The nurses' office was shrouded in darkness. Most of the beds were neat. Crisp sheets were tucked into clean mattresses. Everything sharp and clean. One bed however, had a more human touch. Sheets had been rumpled, and moved up in mountains, covering the form below it. Moving up past the sheets, upon a pale blue pillow lay a head of long white hair, the still form showing no signs of the battle within. Across her chest lay another figure – a boy. Though asleep, his mind also ran busy. Resurrecting memories once forgotten. Reliving a battle already fought and lost, in the crumbled remains of a quake-ravaged subway tunnel.

Above them, hidden above the plaster tiles, another figure lay asleep against the ceiling beams. This figure slept lightly however, her ears tuned for any signs of movement below and her body ready to awaken at the slightest sound. Only the slightest flicker of her eyelids hinted this girl dreamed too.

AUTHORS NOTES:

This chapter, prologue and side-story took longer to write than I really expected. I didn't start writing it till mid-December, 2012, and I'm only just nearing completion now – early May, 2013. A lot of this was through juggling and discarding different ideas for the sequel.

I've pretty much got most of the story planned out now, so in theory the chapters should be coming out on a regular basis. I say in theory, because I return to Uni mid-July. After that point, any updates will be during summer holidays, between mid-November and mid-February. I hope you've got the patience to wait. But mostly, I hope I'm able to write something that's worth waiting for.

By the way, if you'd be able to send me a post saying what it is you liked most about the previous story, I'd appreciate it. I've received a few messages from people saying they liked it, but none really go into _why_. Also, if you could tell me what things you felt didn't quite work (and again, _why_), that'd be really great.


End file.
